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Sunday, March 21, 2010

Good, Bad, and Ugly - Week 2

I started this new Sunday series last week....hope you all will join me on this!

The Good: Boy, this is a tough one this week. We actually had several good things this week: our energy audit, getting our check for fixing the car, reimbursement for some medical insurance co-pays. But the one that I am going to go with: Telling G-man to do the financial disclosure form.

Every year, G-man is required at work to do a full financial disclosure. It is more or less the same form every year, but because of the way they ask the questions, it is a PITA to fill it out. It takes a few hours to go back through everything and get the numbers. And for the past 5 years, G-man hands me the form and tells me it is due on such and such date.

So when he brought it up this week, my reply was "well, why don't you do it this year?" Of course if he is having a hard time figuring out how to get the numbers, I will tell him. But he needs to do this form. He needs to go through the exercise of figuring it all out, and being accountable for something. He needs to find out what a pain it is to do this (and maybe have a small amount of appreciation that I am the one that takes care of the finances.....which I am still having a bit of a control problem letting go of.....but that is another post).

It is due in mid May, so he has some time. I am hoping he works on it sooner than later. I am just proud that I am letting this one go and having him be an active participant in our finances.

The Bad: I am tempted to go with the check engine light coming on again in my car (it came on about 6 weeks ago, and then just went off a few days later). I am seriously hoping that it is just a short in the system that is causing this to go on (the same short that seems to be effecting my rear windshield wiper???? HMMM.) But since this isn't real yet....I am discarding it for the moment.

The winner for this week actually didn't cost any money, but the thought process is landing it in the BAD category for the week: New kitchen table and chairs. I have mentioned in previous posts that we have alot of failing furniture in our house. This table was purchased almost 13 years ago, and is not in good shape.

I found a set I liked on Craigslist for $250. We have the cash from our sales of "stuff" so no debt there. We have resisted buying something NEW because we couldn't justify the expense. But......Here is a set we like. It will last awhile. It is simple lined, so we can always add on to it later if we choose. Maybe we need to replace something in order to keep the mindset of "good things come to those who wait."

Alas, we did not get the set. The woman "promised" it to a guy who was supposed to come back with the funds for it this morning (this whole process started on Thursday). The deal was, she would call if he flaked out. So far....no call.....so I assume that some other lucky guy is getting ready to eat lunch at MY table set.

Bad mindset.

The Ugly: Impulse buying. Spring has sprung, and with that come that urge to freshen and brighten things up. I ended up buying about $30 worth of stuff at the dollar store (7 little planters, seeds, fake flowers, and 3 wreath bases to make the wreath....oh, and the bows!). I went in there for tissue paper. I should have come out with about $5 worth of stuff (I am making flowers to decorate my office. :) ) But I got derailed, and here we are. Because we had "extra" money this week from the reimbursements, I "allowed" myself the pleasure of doing this. I am not terribly angry with myself, and it certainly could have been worse. But it was still unplanned and impulsive. (although, it my little projects are cute!)

As a side note....my Ugly from last week was also an impulse buy. Hmmmm.....I am sensing a trend here. Better keep an eye on this one. Couple this with my BAD for this week....and we may be heading down a slippery slope. Need to get the head back in the game!!

6 comments:

I stumbled across your blog purely by accident (or maybe it was fate!) I stayed and read the whole lot. That was one bad - the housework didn't get done ;)Really BAD for me this week was having to fork out $659(AUD as I am in Australia) for wheel bearings on my car, because I ignored the funny sound that sounded like a flat tyre, I did more damage than normal. :(My good was going for the cheaper meats for meals - mince and chicken, but sadly, due to a huge thunderstorm, the power went off in the middle of roasting 2 chickens, so the dog will be well fed. That is the Ugly. :(Thanks for being so honest in your blog.

Oh, and just a thought, why don't you suggest that G-man keeps a notebook with all his financial needs for the year. Then when HE has to do the form, it is not such a PITA. Obviously he has to submit the information for reimbursement, so if he kept it in a separate notebook, with a running total, it would all be at hand for him. ;)

Due to the nature of his job, I really can't go into details. I will say this....he works for our federal government, and they need to know that he isn't in a financial position that would open him up to accepting a financial bribe.